10 MOST LIVED-IN Open World Games

today we wanted to talk some mostly open-world game worlds that feel truly lived in we're taking a look at game worlds that truly put the work in to make it feel like you're in a real alive place from artificial intelligence of citizens to just general art and level design and vibe we've got a lot of fun and exciting places to talk about here so let's just get started off with number 10 and talk about the obvious one Skyrim Skyrim of course but that has been building great game worlds for the Elder Scrolls universe for a long time already my personal favorite is morrowind but most recently we have Skyrim the biggest mainstream success for the series yet and absolutely a fascinating living world that a bunch of bands sunk tons of hours living and questing in Skyrim's matt is riddled with not only things to do but random things to stumble across whether it's some bandits hiding out in a cave an old lady living in the middle of the woods it all feels like a convincing region of Tamriel will people actually live and breathe in this harsh or northern region sure it technically feels a bit older than a lot of the other games we're gonna mention on this list but it still has some taverns with interesting people city streets with civilians and guards who react to you as they go about their day and go to sleep at night blacksmith's hammer away all day sawmills make lumber as significant as you are in the story like you as the Dragonborn are to this world you can still just walk around and be in it the Elder Scrolls games always just do a really good job of feeling like living breathing places but over at number 9 Assassin's Creed syndicate it's a vastly underrated Assassin's Creed game sure you know if falls prey to a lot of the typical trappings of the open-world games that people don't like but still it took a lot of lessons from the tech and systems built off from Assassin's Creed unity and plopped it in an insanely big detailed and almost modern game world it takes place in London England in the late 1860's basically the closest to modern times Assassin's Creed has ever been and has all the stuff of a world going through the Industrial Revolution you would come to expect you know soaring buildings multiple stories steel everywhere factories working non-stop a bustling main river crowded with boat traffic shipping goods everywhere pretty much accurately representing London England as the powerhouse of the world it was in that period of time not only that streets were wide and filled with not only detail on the sides of the streets and people but bustling horse and carriage traffic something that just seems very complicated to implement into a game like this you don't see it in games and often and yet here it is all of this horse and buggy traffic it's cool people coming and going on the streets and bridges and carriages of all shapes and sizes and purposes make it all feel so alive not only that there's also trains that are persistently cruising around the whole map it's a big wide polluted city with rich political districts working class districts factory zones deeply poor areas that all feel convincingly real and not only lived in but like really lived in it it feels like a really old city bursting at the seams and it's cool to experience now over number eight let's talk about Al beyond the world of the fable series particularly fable 1 and 2 because 3 was just kind of a rough game but al beyond is a very lived-in world from a look and feel standpoint I don't think people talked enough about how deeply beautiful and just kind of like comfortable and cozy these worlds feel there's oak Vale you know the charming little village filled with ancient stone walls cobblestone paths a little wooden town houses people amble about throughout the day each have their own home and it feels like a fantasy village that has been there for a thousand years venture out into the woods and fields and you'll find big gnarled old trees that look like they've been there forever and really hammer home the games like really good cozy fall tone and then of course there's Bauer stone the big city of the original game and the even bigger city from fable to Bauer stone has the same bustle of NPCs but it's richly detailed the ancient cobblestone city has high castle walls ramshackle buildings tucked in some interesting vegetation growing in weird places and also a lot of chickens fast forward 500 years to that same bower stone in fable 2 and the city is absolutely massive and feels like a giant urban sprawl maze filled with secrets of Mourne paths lots of bands of people living in alleyways shops Nobles and soaring buildings and an epic castle it doesn't feel like realistic alive but it does still have a lot of life if that makes sense this is really only scratching the surface of everything Albion has to offer in terms of convincing locations but yeah we love fable and it's world next over at number 7 grand theft auto 5 s entire state of San Andreas of course the city of Los Santos and its surrounding regions are riddled with fun details and wacky pedestrians the world just feel so lived in thanks to the fact that there is so much hidden beneath the surface lit I mean literally there are secrets in the ocean if you're willing to explore them not only that though just hidden corners of the map woods mountains there's always something weird to find now of course the city of Los Santos feels unique and alive you know with people bustling around cars traffic typical open world crime game stuff they have a really nice eye for detail down to homeless people sheltering themselves and the Hollywood upper-class being themselves but Grand Theft Auto 5 is also unique for pulling off the less populated rural areas and making them feel like people actually live there not just like a boring flat landscape with a few trailers like many other games simply do it no no up by sandy shores in particular yes it's mostly trailer parks but with convenience stores strip malls parking lots and abandoned buildings it really makes you feel like a place people exist in and not just a goofy parody grand theft auto 4 and 5 in particular just feel like convincing real places even if the majority of your interaction with people is just blowing them up over at number 6 let's talk about sleeping dogs the Hong Kong depicted in sleeping dogs isn't like a one-to-one accurate or meticulous recreation or anything like that but it works so hard to make you feel the bustle of one of the biggest metropolitan areas in Asia the developers did do tons of research in person and and took hundreds of thousands of photographs to nail the vibe and feel accurately the city area is split into four districts that all feel distinctly different and throughout there are like packed high waves bustling narrow city streets filled with people and umbrellas tons of details like market stalls wet markets convenience stores people selling their wares electrical boxes wires trash tons of neon signs beautifully reflecting onto the rain-soaked streets the coastal areas have busy fisheries modeled after the ones in real life it's a stylized city a video game city yeah but you really feel the hustle of it despite the games age play the remastered version it's really great let's move on to number five and talk about Yakuza this one might be a definitely a lot smaller than the other ones on this list it's not a whole continent or a city or what-have-you but the district of Colorado in the Yaak as the series is one of the densest bustling lived-in worlds we've seen in a video game and a long time sure you're not jumping in vehicles and tearing through the streets but the streets of camacho are just jam-packed full of people living their lives and mulling about the streets and businesses tons of buildings for you to go into and side activities to be found it's an incredible facility of Tokyo's red-light district Kabukicho and the level of care and detail put into fleshing out this world and making it feel as authentic and lived in is frankly astonishing and like we said it's just chock full of stuff to do you can roam the streets and take it all in or you can explore the many restaurants bars clubs arcades bowling alleys gyms internet cafes convenience stores everything the city has to offer just like in real life this is hard to explain but the game somehow really nails the feel of like a late-night trip down the street and walking into a convenience store in a big city we've done it a thousand times and for some reason Yonkers that really nails it and because combo roadshow is also always the setting of the main line Yakuza games you get to see the evolution of the city and how it changes over time from the 80s and Yaka zero all the way up to Joc is a six is modern 2016 version of the city and seeing how that city changes with new technological cultural influences all in a believable way is really something obviously there's all the clan power-struggle stuff but even just to have civilians in the streets go about their day it's a world that eventually came to transcend the game it was introduced which is pretty awesome if you ask us but over at number four we said this a million times but love or hate the division games and the whole live service games model thing you can't deny that the developers massive entertainment built some incredibly detailed lived-in feeling worlds the division one was Midtown ish New York City and the division two was a to scale Washington DC and lower Manhattan a DLC expansion as someone from New York and someone who has visited DC many times as an East Coaster these are without a doubt some of the most convincingly recreated cities in a video games straight up and what's more impressive is the fact that the cities are totally abandon a widespread bioattack virus led to mass deaths and evacuations so it's empty besides freedom fighters and bad guys and occasional civilians but it still always feel so lived in from details like makeshift shelters to the left behind stuff like pets bikes luggage everywhere you believe these division cities were at one point real cities where people lived and did stuff and then had to leave in a hurry and now these environments are just shooting galleries but still they look damn good now of course down to number three you know we're we're gonna mention it the continent or the world of The Witcher 3 is totally a no-brainer for a great lived-in feeling video game world if he was distinctly medieval but convincing the game is filled with detail and NPCs that look like they're actually doing stuff and not just pantomiming the cities like novigrad in particular feel dense with packed market squares shops riddled with details busy docks their poor sections of dilapidated collapsing old wood buildings and upper-class sections with nice landscaping better views different architecture and different people walking around for better or worse these little details do help the world feel more alive and real not only that the wide-open spaces also feel touched by humans and creatures too - like a spooky abandoned cabin in the middle of the woods you can stumble across two crumbling castles - the population itself you know see people out there working in the farm fields soldiers out on the roads rivers occupied and being worked on by fishermen from rural to urban it feels like a living working region not to mention later game areas where people are dealing and living in completely different environments and climates also especially to the expansion land of Tucson as well that feels like a convincing Mediterranean medieval paradise with a sinister side I always say that The Witcher 3 was a success because of two things obviously number one players fell in love with Geralt but number two they fell in love with the world he inhabits now down to number two let's talk about dishonored the original dishonored really blew the doors down in terms of world design and art direction the adventure takes place in the industrial city of dunwall it's kind of like an aesthetic mix of like Victorian era London some steampunk some city 17 from half-life 2 it's all over the place man it's like sci-fi but no for quite like you've seen it before dishonor too expands on dunwall with the coastal city of kar naka all of the dishonored University Isles lived in particularly because of how unique it is how detailed it is how much time they took to really add in the working-class details you know shops fisheries taverns stuff like that in lots of trash and and dead things to Karnataka is powered by wind and dunwall primarily lives off of whale oil and the fact of the game goes to great lengths to show you evidence of that makes it feel like a more alive place a downtrodden place held together by corruption and Industry despite it being so far in exotic and strange you believe it all and it makes sense props to Arkane Studios for that really but down to number one Red Dead Redemption 2 we can't talk a big detail open-world games without mentioning the most recent rockstar games 1 of course there's a lot of Red Dead Redemption tuesd world that is just open space prairies mountains marshes and whatnots the cities and towns while spread out quite a bit our incredibly detailed full of people just doing their own thing and all have their own personality and flavor if that makes sense the game starts you out introducing you to Valentine which is pretty much your stereotypical Wild West town complete with in saloon bunch of shops and people just living and working but even that sleepy town is chock full of detail from the signage on the walls to the imperfect way that the buildings are built and weathering to people building new buildings that are built over time to the muddy streets it really shows that this town has been here long before Arthur Morgan showed up and will continue to be long after he's not you get that from every town really take ensberg for example it's a rough-and-tumble coal mining and shipping town it's dirty its people or rougher around the edges it's got a bit of its own thing going on then travel down to some to me and you've got a way more modernized industrious and dare I say classy setting made in that New Orleans mode and it's shows in the environment it's denser both in population and in the way buildings are placed it's got trolley cars and electricity big fancy saloons and houses factories the people also speak the local tongue with their own accents here you can buy higher-end clothing and other products it's a whole different world from what you've been used to in the other regions in the game and it's kind of jarring at first that they actually went out of their way to bill a full 1800 City here that's just a few examples the game is packed with interesting detailed regions that all have their own Flair you know it's some of the best work Rockstar is done by a country mile as far as world building goes it also feels like Arthur is merely a visitor they're not just the world made for Arthur if that makes sense and we absolutely love it but those are some really lived in feeling game worlds that we wanted a wax poetic about for a minute thank you guys for listening to us but most importantly we want to hear from you guys in the comments some game worlds that you really feel are truly alive truly lived in have been around forever and you love diving into you got your own list let us know in the comments we can always make a part 2 of this video because this was fun but if you enjoyed this video clicking the like button is the best way you can help us out man we really appreciate that and if you're new consider subscribing maybe hitting that notification bell because we put out videos every single day but as always thanks for watching we'll see you guys next time

Channel: gameranx

Views: 4,424,138

Rating: 4.8797846 out of 5

Keywords: lived-in game worlds, living game worlds, open world with crowds, open worlds with most npcs, lively open world games, dense open world games, most detailed open world games, gameranx, jake baldino

Id: mgKFTvRwicg

Length: 14min 7sec (847 seconds)

Published: Sun May 10 2020